Broadband Update meeting – October 2023

This meeting was held in the evening on 25th October, in Rafford Village Hall, in order to provide an update to the community on options for improving broadband connectivity in Finderne. Around 75 people attended.

The agenda consisted of 

    • Welcome and Introductions (Howard Davenport)
    • Overview of Technologies (Tom Hardie)
    • Presentations by Local Providers
      • External Reality (Richard Allen)
      • Logienet (Alec Laing)
      • Rural Communications (Peter Sedgewick)
    • R100 – Summary of FCC questions and answers from Scottish Government
    • Separate one-to-one and group discussions

Overview of Technologies

Tom Hardie ran through the key parts of the FCC Broadband Guide, focussing on:

      • What broadband speeds are required to support different needs
      • What speeds are available from different technologies, in what locations are they available, and some relative costs
      • Who are the providers of different technologies and when they might be available

FCC Broadband Document – Oct 2023

External Reality

Richard Allen explained that his company had built out a fibre network from the Glasgow School of Art premises on Altyre estate to other properties on the estate.    Then along the Dallas Dhu to Rafford Road, under the railway bridge and has provided fibre broadband to properties in this area, past Redhill and now to Old Road, Lower Rafford.  This has been funded in part by pooling the Scottish Broadband Vouchers available to those who would not get an fibre connection through R100.

External Reality would like to extend their fibre network  Thanks to a grant from FDT, they now have the potential to access Openreach infrastructure (poles and ducts).  Richard told the meeting that the Openreach infrastructure database was proving inaccurate, and described the problems using the existing ducting from Lower to Upper Rafford, which is severely silted up.

Richard also outlined plans for a series of masts along the hillside from Blervie Castle to Edinvale, which would allow him to provide Fixed Wireless Broadband (line of sight) to properties in that area, most of which would not get a fibre connection through R100.  However issues with contention (too many properties looking for simultaneous connections} may make that unsuitable for the more densly populated areas of Rafford.

He also introduced a map to which other providers had also contributed, which shows the geographical areas covered by each of the independent providers.  This map is available here  Finderne Altnet Coverage

For more information checkout https://externalreality.co.uk/altyre-rafford/: 

Logienet

Alec Laing explained that he had initially got into the broadband business in order to provide a superfast service to Logie Estate.

He went on to say, ” In 2019 we conducted a survey of local opinion, which revealed the restrictions caused by the poor service generally available here. With LogieNet we strive to improve this with line of sight technology to as many properties as possible.”

A brief outline of the project:

      • A wireless link has been installed to the Logie windfarm, from there line-of-sight wireless links connect further properties.
      • The signal can be bounced on to other properties so even if you cannot see the windfarm it may still be possible to connect you.
      • A small receiver will be mounted on your building (normally in a similar way to the TV aerial) and from there a cable will be run into the building to a router which will provide the internet service.
      • Our technical partner Highland Wireless Ltd provides support to LogieNet customers, as well as operating networks elsewhere.

Logienet can be contacted through their website: https://logie.co.uk/broadband/

Rural Communications

Peter Sedgewick introduced the work of Rural Communications, who have introduced Fixed Wireless Broadband locally to Darnaway and Brodie.  His main offering in the Finderne area is to provide support for Fixed Mobile Broadband installations, which provides broadband through the mobile phone network.  This may be used as an alternative to Fixed Wireless Broadband, or as an interim solution.

For more information see https://www.rural-communications.com/

R100 Questions and Answers

Howard Davenport explained that the FCC had had invited Richard Lochhead, Scottish Government Minister responsible for Policy in this area, and Duncan Nisbet from the SG Broadband Delivery Team, to attend, but they were both unavailable. 

However FCC had asked Duncan Nisbet a number of questions about the R100 rollout prior to the meeting, and this is a summary of the questions and his answers. 

R100 QA 25 Oct 2023

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